INTRODUCTION
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READING ASSIGNMENT
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WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Assignment 7:
COTTON MATHER & JONATHAN EDWARDS
We conclude our work on New England Puritanism with a reading of two writers who became the chief spokesmen of its decline. During last decades of the 17th century, many Puritans felt that society had betrayed the first settlers' hopes of building the New Jerusalem in America. The 1660 Restoration of Charles II to the English throne was the first of many blows. The church had also undergone key changes. For example, in 1662 (one year before Mather's birth) a synod of Boston theologians met and adopted the "Halfway Covenant," which extended the sacrament of baptism to the children of those who had not experienced religious conversion. The real purpose of this compromise: to solve the problem of declining church membership. New England society also underwent enormous changes after 1660. The success of Boston as a commercial hub brought great changes: new richness in habits of dress, entertainment, and the adornment of homes and public buildings; as well as boom-times for tavern-keepers, brothel operators, and the owners of horse-tracks. Politics in New England was permanently altered in 1691 when the crown acted to revoke the 1630 charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company, put the colony under royal governorship, united the formerly distinct Plymouth colony with the Bay Company, and entitled all Christians (except Catholics) to vote. In a trice, Massachusetts had been changed from a theocracy into a secular (and proto-democratic) colony. Meantime, from Europe came news of new, rationalistic philosophical thinking--in names like Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Isaac Newton (1643-1727) and John Locke (1632-1704)--which posed strong challenges to Puritan doctrines of predestination and election.
The 1692 witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts, may be seen as an outgrowth of these anxious times. Many historians see them as a last-ditch attempt of churchmen to assert their authority over an increasingly secular society. As a chronicler of those events, Cotton Mather revealed the backwards-looking side of his character. As the title of his
Wonders of the Invisible World
implies, Mather believed there was a realm of supernatural beings, claimed to have experienced a visit from an angel when he was thirty, and wrote of confronting devils as well, saying on one occasion that he had physically prevented a devil from wrapping invisible manacles around a girl. The forwards-looking side of Mather's character is revealed in other writings, perhaps best of all his 1710 book
Bonifacius
, which was popularly known under the title of
Essays to Do Good
, and an enormous influence on the young Benjamin Franklin. In these writings, Mather argued for the pragmatic benefits of religion, and put to use the humanistic ideas of early Enlightenment thinkers. Mather's writings on geology, astronomy and botany won him a wide reputation; and with Boston physician Zabdiel Boylston he brought to America the practice of inoculating people against smallpox.
Edwards was a descendent of those times. Though brought up for the ministry, he was also broadly educated, having read extensively in the philosophy of Descartes, Locke and others. He had absorbed much from rationalist science, in particular the idea of Man as a natural organism conditioned by its environment. Edwards also realized that Locke's ideas of a human psyche based on physical sensation, in a cosmos ruled by mechanistic laws, had rendered obsolete much of conventional theology--especially its ideas of a separate spiritual realm, Mather's "invisible world." The challenge Edwards faced was to sustain basic tenets of Puritan belief--original sin, predestination, and providence--against this increasingly secular climate. His writing in Images and Shadows of Divine Things illustrates the attempt to blend a rationalist observation of nature with his Puritanism. His "Personal Narrative"--a spiritual autobiography in the tradition of Bradstreet's--reveals a man struggling with the rationalist challenge to religious belief. Historically, though, Edwards is best remembered for his contributions to the "Great Awakening" of the 1740's, when much of New England was swept by a revivalist fervor. Edwards's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," is a classic instance of the hell-fire and brimstone preaching which apparently typified the Great Awakening. It stands, moreover, as a final, classic statement of Puritan belief in a colonial society becoming increasingly rationalistic, economically and politically independent, and conscious of itself as American--the society, in short, of Franklin, Jefferson, Paine and Crevecoeur.
Reading Assignment
Cotton Mather,
The Wonders of the Invisible World
(pp. 373-379); and
Bonifacius
(pages 400-411).
Jonathan Edwards, "Personal Narrative" (pp. 440-452); "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God" (pp. 474-485); and
Images or Shadows of Divine Things
(pp. 487-491).
Writing Assignment
In
Wonders of the Invisible World
Mather prefaces his discussion of the witchcraft trials by saying that he writes, not as an interested party or "advocate," but as a disinterested observer, "an historian" (page 376). Do you buy that claim? Why or why not? Does he have other motives for writing?
According to Mather, in
Wonders
, what reasons would the Devil have for being so interested in New England, or, for that matter, Martha Carrier?
Reading the excerpt from
Bonifacius
, the discussion of child-rearing is notable, and invites us to wonder what it would have been like, being a 17th Century New England child. Answer the following, using the text to support your replies:
Which is more important in the child's life, God or parents? Why?
If children are born in sin, as Mather claims, what specifically must be done with or for them?
In a well-written paragraph, compare Mather's view of children to that in any text by either Bradstreet or Taylor.
As with Bradstreet's spiritual autobiography, with Edwards' "Personal Narrative" we can also ask: What is the rhythm that he finds in his life? Answer, using the text to illustrate.
Edwards' 1741 sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," seems to be based upon a scriptural text from Deuteronomy ("Their foot shall slide in due time"). In fact, however, Edwards' text really proceeds through an act of paraphrase or interpretation, as he restates the scripture for his own use. What is his restatement of it, and how does he then use that restatement?
According to Edwards, what are the main features of God's punishment against sinners?
Reading excerpts of "Images or Shadows of Divine Things," say how the observation of Nature is important to Edwards.
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CONTENTS
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DESCRIPTION
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GUIDELINES
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TIMELINE
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ASSIGNMENTS
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INDEPENDENT STUDY PROGRAM
The 1692 witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts, may be seen as an outgrowth of
these anxious times. Many historians see them as a last-ditch attempt of churchmen
to assert their authority over an increasingly secular society. As a chronicler of
those events, Cotton Mather revealed the backwards-looking side of his character.
As the title of his Wonders of the Invisible World implies, Mather believed
there was a realm of supernatural beings, claimed to have experienced a visit from
an angel when he was thirty, and wrote of confronting devils as well, saying on
one occasion that he had physically prevented a devil from wrapping invisible
manacles around a girl. The forwards-looking side of Mather's character is revealed
in other writings, perhaps best of all his 1710 book Bonifacius, which was
popularly known under the title of Essays to Do Good, and an enormous
influence on the young Benjamin Franklin. In these writings, Mather argued for the
pragmatic benefits of religion, and put to use the humanistic ideas of early
Enlightenment thinkers. Mather's writings on geology, astronomy and botany won him
a wide reputation; and with Boston physician Zabdiel Boylston he brought to
America the practice of inoculating people against smallpox.
Edwards was a descendent of those times. Though brought up for the ministry, he
was also broadly educated, having read extensively in the philosophy of Descartes,
Locke and others. He had absorbed much from rationalist science, in particular the
idea of Man as a natural organism conditioned by its environment. Edwards also
realized that Locke's ideas of a human psyche based on physical sensation, in a
cosmos ruled by mechanistic laws, had rendered obsolete much of conventional
theology--especially its ideas of a separate spiritual realm, Mather's "invisible
world." The challenge Edwards faced was to sustain basic tenets of Puritan
belief--original sin, predestination, and providence--against this increasingly
secular climate. His writing in Images and Shadows of Divine Things illustrates
the attempt to blend a rationalist observation of nature with his Puritanism. His
"Personal Narrative"--a spiritual autobiography in the tradition of
Bradstreet's--reveals a man struggling with the rationalist challenge to religious
belief. Historically, though, Edwards is best remembered for his contributions to
the "Great Awakening" of the 1740's, when much of New England was swept by a
revivalist fervor. Edwards's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," is a
classic instance of the hell-fire and brimstone preaching which apparently typified
the Great Awakening. It stands, moreover, as a final, classic statement of Puritan
belief in a colonial society becoming increasingly rationalistic, economically and
politically independent, and conscious of itself as American--the society, in short,
of Franklin, Jefferson, Paine and Crevecoeur.